Citation

Sherman FT. Geriatrics 2005; 60(8): 5-6.

Affiliation

Mount Sinai NYU Health, USA. fsherman@advanstar.com

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, Advanstar Communications)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

16092885

Abstract

I was in the middle of an office visit when I received a call from my 80-year-old aunt. She was lying in the Emergency Department (ED) of her upstate community hospital. She related a James Bond thriller that went something like this: She was driving home when a car hit the passenger side of her 4-door compact car. The emergency medical technicians, who were first on the scene, had to call in the local volunteer fire department to free my osteoporotic aunt from behind the crushed steering wheel with the "Jaws of Life".  She was then placed in a harness, hoisted up 50 feet to the Med-Vac helicopter that could not land at the hilly accident site, and choppered to the roof-top heliport of the hospital. When she called me from the ED, my aunt reported chest pain. She self-diagnosed this as a broken rib received when the airbag went off on impact or from the helicopter harness. The X-rays indeed showed a fractured rib. When I visited her a week later she was worried about her future ability to drive. She uses her car to shop, bank, visit her friends and doctor, and occasionally dine out. Like many seniors in non-urban areas who value their independence, driving is crucial to her remaining independent. When she visited her primary care physician again a week later, he gave her brochures about driving and suggested she be further evaluated for her driving skills. Using the "Driving Safely as You Get Older" guide prepared by her state Department of Motor vehicles, I tested her in her kitchen. I put her through her paces, performing tests of vision (visual acuity and contrast), response time (Trails B test), general fitness (10-foot rapid gait test), foot and arm movement (alternating foot tap and arm reach tests), and head and neck flexibility. She passed all of them. My aunt is extremely thoughtful, cautious, and self-protective. She weighed everyone's advice, including my own, considered the results of the in-home performance testing, and read the AARP Driver Safety Program brochure. She has chosen to limit her driving to local, well-known roads, and only during the daytime.